The only thing worse than the notion of a vicious spiral is the spiral of a vicious notion.

Okay, it's not the only thing, but it's one of 'em.

And as for the dancing dinosaurs, sorry, but they just won't form themselves into a coherent compelling vision. I've checked in with this thread several times today and each time I've gone "Oh, yeah! I'm supposed to be hounded by the idea of dancing dinosaurs!" and a minute or two later I forget all about them.

Not so big as a horse or as dramatic as a fart, but one of my toads, a smallish one that lives in my veggie garden, left the biggest turd, in proportion to it's body size, that I have ever seen, on my sidewalk this evening. I'm not sure whether to say "that must have hurt" or "that must have felt good!"

Hey, MOM! It's eggplant parmesian for dinner tonight! And tomorrow. And the day after. And the day after that. The eggplant are all coming in now, enough to keep us eating eggplant for a month or more if we eat it every day.

The ceiling of the library is painted aubergine or, as we say, dark purple. That's because about 65% of it is unfinished and the paint hides the ducts, pipes, and stuff. It's unfinished because they ran out of money -- something about investing the donated money in dotcom stocks in the '90s....

I have a recipe for a pork, tomato, onion, and eggplant casserole that is heavenly. Plus, it knocks off two or three eggplants in one meal that way. Also, I fry up breaded slices and cover them with tomato sauce and mozarella and freeze them for meals later. Very good when you're hungry and in a hurry.

I read those Mitford books. Borrowed 'em from a friend. My wife put 'em in her car to return, left the car window open and they all got ruined. Books and water don't mix. We offered to pay for 'em, but our friend insisted that we just give her equal value in pottery and keep our cash. That was nice and Mitfordly of her, wasn't it?

back to a previous question, regarding Gluon and shedding and molting.

Shedding results because of a seasonal weakening of the hair, causing it to break off; Molting results from the old feather being pushed out by the growth of the new feather.

Oddly enough - it is believed (hard to sutdy Gluon because of the uncertainty principle) that Gloun actually molts hair and sheds feathers. In other words, Gluon grows 'hair in discrete sections, much as normal feathers grow; but Glouns feathers grow in a continous manner, such as normal hair is produced - or for example the tail feathers of certain rare orieintal roosters.

I qualified my statement because I'm not sure. But there have been certain anomalies found lately by the Accelerator Lab at Idaho State University that tend to lead me to the possibility that perhaps Gluon has maybe reproduced her/his self. On of those is the footprints of tiny quarks with a quality the A-Lab folks are calling "piddle."